QueenZone discussion #623139
Why Did Rodger sing hijack my heart?
| R.E.M-QUEEN 17.09.2005 04:03 |
I have always wondered why he sang this tune and not freddie and why it was left of the miracle.Maybe no-one else will agree(because i grew up loving it)but it is a catchy song.Im not a big fan of the miracle album,but this song should have been on there,as well as stealin,great B-sides,great songs. |
| Banquo 17.09.2005 04:14 |
Roger sang his own songs on albums up to The Game. Which are: Modern Times Rock n' Roll Loser in the End Tenement Funster I'm in Love with My Car Drowse Fight From The Inside Fun It (shared with Freddie) More of that Jazz Rock It (Freddie intro) A Human Body (b-side) Roger's answer according to a fan-club question in why he stopped is 'dunno - sorry'. Certainly Roger sang guide vocals on his tracks in the 80's. And according to Greg Brooks sang a bit on Mother Love. |
| Tero 17.09.2005 04:56 |
Banquo wrote: Roger's answer according to a fan-club question in why he stopped is 'dunno - sorry'. Certainly Roger sang guide vocals on his tracks in the 80's. And according to Greg Brooks sang a bit on Mother Love.It would be more than fair to say that by 1980 even Roger had realised that Queen wouldn't have any hits with HIS vocals. That's why he let Freddie do the vocals on the later albums, and that's why the only Roger-song that Freddie wouldn't/couldn't sing ended up in the backside of a single... That's the only place where it didn't hurt the sales. :P |
| Freddie F 17.09.2005 13:50 |
I always wondered if they didn't have a sort of agreement between "The Game" and "Hot Space": "ok, Rog, we put one of your songs on a single A-Side, but I'll sing it!" (Freddie). From "Hot Space" on, Roger didn't sing his songs on the albums anymore, but some of them were released as singles for Queen. Sure, he had his solo career, but I think Freddie had less input on the albums. "Radio Ga-Ga" was "The Works"' first 45t, same for "A Kind Of Magic" on AKOM. On "The Miracle", Roger had 2 singles ("Invisible Man" and "Breakthru"), same on "Innuendo" ("Innuendo" - co-written with Freddie, OK - and "These Are The Days Of Our Lives"). On "Made In Heaven", he had "Heaven For Everyone", "You Don't Fool Me" (written with Freddie) and "Let Me Live" (which he completed)... |
| Serry... 17.09.2005 14:07 |
They have agreement on "The Game" but about other things: Freddie and Brian write 3 songs each other, John and Roger - 2 songs each other. That's, probably, why 'A Human's Body' was left out of the album, though there was space for it. About 'Hijack My Heart': yes, I agree, it would be great it the song would be on the album as well as 'Stealin'', but who cares about our opinions? And by the way on their next release another one song sung by not Freddie was released only as B-side - 'Lost Opportunity'. |
| Ayreon 17.09.2005 17:26 |
I love this song...Rogers vocals are great and layed back...Too bad it isnt on the album, sure is a better track than 'rain must fall' |
| The Fairy King 17.09.2005 18:00 |
DP |
| The Fairy King 17.09.2005 18:00 |
<font color=#C5150>The Fairy King</font> wrote:Ayreon wrote: I love this song...Rogers vocals are great and layed back...Too bad it isnt on the album, sure is a better track than 'rain must fall'it's not |
| Josuè 18.09.2005 14:27 |
R.E.M-QUEEN wrote: Why Did Rodger sing hijack my heart?RoDger? What? |
| inu-liger 19.09.2005 22:33 |
Josuè<br><font size=1>sex leak</font> wrote:He means Paul Rodgers sang it during rehearsals ;-)R.E.M-QUEEN wrote: Why Did Rodger sing hijack my heart?RoDger? What? |
| EraserHead 20.09.2005 02:09 |
Rain Must Fall is awesome. |
| PainPleasure 12.11.2005 11:49 |
Because he wanted... |
| Rick 12.11.2005 14:17 |
Why not? I mean, Roger's got a great voice. |
| Martin Packer 10.04.2015 11:03 |
Reviving a 10 year old thread: Just listened to the song and it sounds VERY Cross-like. Especially close to Shove It. I wonder if ANYONE other than Roger played on it. Perhaps some of the guitar. |
| Apocalipsis_Darko 10.04.2015 20:13 |
I asked to Roger why he left to sang a song being the lead singer in Queen albums in the 80's like he did in the 70's. He answered me, they were lucky to have Freddie and prefered to gave him all the songs. A curiios thing, apart from that, is that, in my opinion, Roger's interpretation of "Ride the wild wind" is better than Freddie. You can feel Roger sang it with all his passion at the time. |
| matt z 11.04.2015 06:35 |
Stealin' has always sucked as a queen track. It's nothing more than a bare bones skeleton of a song. Right down to the simple "octave pedal"sounding acoustic guitar bits (could even be a "glassy sounding acoustic pedal" on an electric) Way underdeveloped. But it's a curio for the queen enthusiast. And unless I'm crazy. The "air" of affairs in the late 80's was comfortably positive and optimistic unless you were in Guatemala. The music was at least positive. This curio is interesting. As for hijack my heart. Who knows. If I asked him he'd probably get mad at me for being "not what he expected" as per aging distant rock stars snooding down. But if there's a journalist here. Why not ask it? Maybe it was a last minute decision to add his DEMO version to a b side. Maybe it hasn't advanced to the mercury line. That's my guess. It IS very interesting though as it's a post THE GAME Roger solo vocal. I think it's fun, casually risqué, 80's-ily infectious with the electronic percussion and synth bass. That's been my favorite Roger solo spot just for the cheesy outro. Stole my heart. .. threw away the keeeyy. Etc. It's just a generation thing for me honestly. Just like enjoying parts of ROCKY IV (a prolonged 80's music video) Particularly "no easy way out" 80's cheese power synth. Somehow the GREAT artists managed to express themselves through a sampled music database. (Eurythmics, Devo, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, etc) while others faltered. It's a cheesy song but it's cheery and I love it. Someone ask Roger |
| Sebastian 11.04.2015 06:56 |
matt z wrote: Maybe it was a last minute decision to add his DEMO version to a b side. Maybe it hasn't advanced to the mercury line.That's indeed an interesting theory. It could also, alternatively, have been a 'Shove It' reject which may or may not have had some input from other Queen members. |
| Martin Packer 11.04.2015 09:42 |
I suspect "Shove It" reject is about right. |
| Khizzy 12.04.2015 09:51 |
I think calling it a Shove It "reject" is unfair, it's actually a really good song and one of my favourite Queen songs (and I'm not ashamed to admit that). It might well have been left over from those sessions, but in my opinion, it's unlikely (no evidence to back that theory up, of course) - sounds more like a Miracle reject. I'd say that Brian played on the song alongside Roger, because the guitar solo is definitely a Brian solo - same goes for the fills in the song. Not sure if Freddie or John had any input though, it's not 100% obvious - although any four of them could have played any of the keyboards/synth bass on the song. It's highly debatable but we have no evidence to say for sure who did what. |
| Martin Packer 12.04.2015 11:31 |
I agree "reject" is unnecessarily pejorative: I rather like the song, having been reminded of it in recent days (and having had it on the original CD single from when it came out). As for the solo I was undecided on that. But I'd defer to the experts. And as for Freddie not singing on it, it's got a lovely vocal from Roger. :-) |
| Sebastian 12.04.2015 14:41 |
Khizzy wrote: I think calling it a Shove It "reject" is unfairTo be fair, we didn't call it that. All I suggested is that it might have been. And yeah, it might have been. Khizzy wrote: it's actually a really good song and one of my favourite Queen songsBeing a reject doesn't exclude a song from being potentially good, and being good doesn't exclude it from being rejected. 'Brighton Rock' was a 'Queen II' reject, and it doesn't make it any less excellent than it is; 'Stone Cold Crazy' is a 'Queen' and 'Queen II' reject, and 'We Are the Champions' is an 'A Night at the Opera' reject, and all those songs are really good. Khizzy wrote: It might well have been left over from those sessionsIn which case it was submitted for inclusion, considered, and ultimately ... guess which word goes there: rejected! Khizzy wrote: Not sure if Freddie or John had any input thoughIf the bass is a synth then the possibility of Freddie or John having played it is less than 0.1% in my opinion. It's far more likely that it was Roger, David Richards or even Spike. Martin Packer wrote: I agree "reject" is unnecessarily pejorativeNot really. It can be used derogatorily but in essence it simply means it was submitted and then declined. Which it probably was (for either 'Shove It' or 'The Miracle' or both). 'Too Much Love' was also a 'Miracle' reject. Not for quality reasons, but for copyright. But still: it was submitted, considered and then rejected. It's, therefore, a 'Miracle' reject, as are 'Hang on in There', 'Chinese Torture', 'My Life Has Been Saved', 'All God's People' and many others. |
| Martin Packer 13.04.2015 02:36 |
You're on dodgy ground with the tracks that ended up on (my at least) CD version of The Miracle. :-) |
| Sebastian 13.04.2015 05:58 |
Well, rejected from the vinyl :D |
| matt z 13.04.2015 17:53 |
As unimportant as it is, this topic's been on my mind. 3 possible reasons. 1) a demo from sessions that was just touched up a bit and didn't cross Freddie's path 2) a reject from SHOVE IT 3) in owing to the new "band as a whole unit; with songwriting credits going to all.... it's just possible that this was a means of celebrating that spirit. After all. .. each band member got a pretty basic demo b- side on the MIRACLE run. Hang on in there My life has been saved hijack my heart Stealin A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81? |
| The King Of Rhye 13.04.2015 18:08 |
matt z wrote: A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81?The real question should be why wasn't it included on The Game? I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Roger wasn't happy with the drum sound on the song.... |
| The Ghost of Lester Burnham 13.04.2015 18:24 |
The King Of Rhye wrote:Mack said that while Roger was proud of the song, Freddie and Brian deemed it "too melodic" (pish posh!) and it was relegated to the B-side. Coming Soon was originally supposed to be the B-side, with A Human Body on the album, but because Rock It already had Roger singing lead vocals (mostly), there couldn't be two songs with Roger singing lead... even though Coming Soon features Roger practically singing co-lead with Freddie.matt z wrote: A better question might be why did he sing lead on A Human Body in 80-81?The real question should be why wasn't it included on The Game? I much prefer A Human Body to Coming Soon, and much prefer Hijack My Heart to a lot of stuff on The Miracle. That's the beauty of iTunes: I can make those decisions the band should have made ;-) |
| Sebastian 13.04.2015 20:17 |
It's not that 'Coming Soon' was 'originally' gonna be the B-Side as much as simply having been suggested so by its author. While, reportedly, Freddie and Brian suggested 'A Human Body' would've represented one ballad too many, hindsight is 20/20. Myself, I like 'Coming Soon' and I think it's a very nice breather sandwiched in between the album's two best pieces. The guitar solo's wonderful, as are Freddie's vocals. Probably further reasons why it got their votes. |
| The King Of Rhye 13.04.2015 20:50 |
The Ghost of Lester Burnham wrote: Mack said that while Roger was proud of the song, Freddie and Brian deemed it "too melodic" (pish posh!)LOL........what a crime! Your song is too melodic.....(I thought a good song was supposed to be melodic......) Maybe they didn't want Coming Soon as a b side because they thought it would sound too much like a commercial or something......("Play The Game! Coming Soon!") :P |
| Martin Packer 14.04.2015 04:08 |
Now I can't imagine them AVOIDING the "Play The Game / Coming Soon" commercial gag. :-) |
| IanR 14.04.2015 08:32 |
Someone mentioned on here just recently that a version of 'Hijack' was recorded with a rough vocal demo by Freddie. Perhaps they decided Roger's voice just suited the song better? Another question concerns the piano outro on the demo: could this be Freddie? |
| The Ghost of Lester Burnham 14.04.2015 18:15 |
Now THAT would be something to hear – Freddie singing a song about fast cars and stupid bimbos! That piano outro has always befuddled me, especially because it's so nice. I can't remember if it's complicated enough to have been performed by Freddie, or if maybe any of the others – or even David Richards – could have performed it. |
| matt z 16.04.2015 08:18 |
Yikes . I HAD forgotten about that demo. A little bit sounds similar in that it may have been mixed differently but retained the same time code. So that rules out the song not passing Freddie's lap so to speak. I think i hear Fred on a bit of the demo at the start. Muddy though it may be. Maybe I'll ask Brian's soapbox. Hopefully he'll remember details and be flattered that I'd asked him about a song written by Roger |